1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a self-supporting umbrella which can be held in a self-standing state even in a place where an umbrella stand is not available, such as on a platform of a railway station, inside a train, or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
As this kind of self-supporting umbrella, there has hitherto been known one in Japanese Published Unexamined Utility Model Registration Application No. 31312/1991. Namely, as shown in FIGS. 10A and 10B, this self-supporting umbrella has a ferrule D which is made up of a ferrule base portion B having a cylinder portion A, and a leg mechanism C which is disposed at a front end of the ferrule base portion B and which is capable of being opened and closed. The cylinder portion A is provided with an engaging hook E and is also provided therein with a leg operating member G which is movable up and down so as to open and close the leg mechanism C. The leg operating member G has a rod H which is connected to links Cb. The links Cb of the leg mechanism C are operated by the up and down movement of this rod H, whereby legs Ca are opened and closed.
Normally, as shown in FIG. 10A, the leg operating member G is pushed down by a resilient force of the spring F inside the cylinder portion A to thereby push down the links Cb. The leg mechanism C is thus maintained in a state in which the legs are closed. When the rod H, i.e., the leg operating member G is pushed up by urging the lower end of the rod H against the ground, the spring F is compressed as shown in FIG. 10B, and the leg mechanism C is opened. Once the engaging hook E is engaged with a notched portion J of the leg operating member G, the legs are kept opened.
In order to return the legs to the closed state, the engaging hook E is pushed by hand to thereby release the engagement between the engaging hook E and the leg operating member G. Then, due to the resilient force of the spring F, the leg operating member G returns to the original position, whereby the leg mechanism C returns to the closed state.
This self-supporting umbrella has, however, the following disadvantage. Namely, the spring F and the leg operating member G are disposed inside the cylinder portion A. Further, since the leg mechanism C which is capable of opening and closing is provided with links Cb which are connected to the rod H, the construction is complicated. In addition, since both ends of the links Cb are made in a pin-connection construction, the assembly of the umbrella is troublesome.
Still furthermore, this self supporting umbrella has the following disadvantage. Namely, when the leg mechanism C is operated to open the legs, the engaging hook E must successfully be brought into engagement with the notched portion J of the leg operating member G. In other words, the failure in engagement will end in a failure in maintaining the legs opened, with the result that the operation of opening the legs is not always easy. In addition, in order to close the legs, the engaging hook E must be pushed by hand. Since the ferrule D is likely to be stained, this operation results in the stain in fingers of the operator or the bearer. This conventional self-supporting umbrella has still another disadvantage in that the operation of the leg mechanism is limited to either fully opening the legs or fully closing them and therefore that the opening degree of the legs cannot be adjusted.
The present invention has an object of providing a self-supporting umbrella in which the assembling can be made easily, in which the opening and closing of the legs can be made without staining the hands of the operator or the bearer, and in which the opening degree of the legs can be adjusted.